Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to anchoring or affixing pilings to a bottom of a body of water, and more specifically relates to arrangements for affixing ones of a plurality of dock legs used to support a dock.
2. Background Information
Generally speaking, people have been embedding, driving, anchoring, or otherwise supporting a piling, post or similar structural member in the ground or in a bottom of a body of water for many generations. Among the voluminous patent art in this area, the following references appear relevant:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,525, in which Doeringer et al. describe a column support comprising a lumber receiver having a base plate with anchoring legs. Fixed portions of the anchoring legs extend radially outwardly from a center of the receiver so as to better retain the column support in a concrete body that is cast over the legs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,416, to Wolgamot, who discloses an approach to making a dock supported on a plurality of metal legs. A flat foot-plate is welded to the bottom of each of the legs of Wolgamot""s dock. The dock is supported on the bottom of a body of water by the plurality of foot-plates. Wolgamot does not teach the use of penetrating members extending below his foot-plates.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,716, wherein Holowell et al. show an oil rig leg support having a base plate attached to a plurality of piling sleeves through which pilings are driven to anchor the leg to the bottom of a body of water. Holowell et al.""s anchoring structure is designed to be sufficiently buoyant that it can be towed to an installation site.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,354, wherein DePierro shows several embodiments of piling receivers. One of these comprises anchoring legs. Each leg has a xe2x80x9cstop platexe2x80x9d extending radially outward from its axis. DePierro""s stop plates are fixed with respect to their associated anchoring legs. DePierro""s stop plates do not penetrate the earth.
A preferred embodiment of the invention provides apparatus for anchoring a dock leg to a bottom of a body of water. The preferred apparatus comprises a base plate having a lumber or timber receiver on its top surface and having three or more anchor legs attached to the base plate in a spaced-apart arrangement and extending downwardly from the base plate. At least one of the anchor legs preferably has a fluke pivotally attached to it so that when the anchor leg is pushed downwardly into a bottom of a body of water the fluke pivots into contact with the anchor leg. Any subsequent attempt to pull the anchor leg upwardly would cause the fluke to pivot into an extended position in which it provides additional resistance to the upward motion of the anchoring leg.
The invention provides a method of anchoring buoyant dock legs that is a significant improvement over the prior art. Most small docks have legs made of conventional lumber or timbers large enough to provide a buoyant force adequate to support a metal anchoring apparatus of the invention. One can thus attach the anchoring apparatus of the invention to a dock leg, tow the dock leg to wherever it is to be installed, turn it into a vertical orientation, and thrust the anchoring apparatus into the bottom of the body of water.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide dock leg anchoring apparatus light enough that a wooden dock leg having the anchoring apparatus attached to an end thereof forms a buoyant assembly. Moreover, this apparatus is tenacious enough when implanted in a bottom of a body of water that it resists an upward pull created by the buoyancy of the wood.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a dock leg anchoring apparatus adapted to be emplaced so that a base plate portion of the apparatus rests on a bottom of a body of water and resists loads tending to push the dock leg too deeply into the bottom. As noted above, preferred embodiments of the invention comprise pivotally movable flukes attached to one or more of the anchoring legs. Each of these flukes is arranged to fold against its respective leg when that leg is pushed into the bottom of the body of water, and to pivot away from the leg so as to resist a force in the opposite direction. Hence, the anchoring apparatus of the invention is intended to resist forces in either direction along a vertical axis after the anchoring apparatus has been thrust sufficiently far into the bottom that a bottom surface of the base plate bears on the bottom of the body of water.
Although it is believed that the foregoing recital of features and advantages may be of use to one who is skilled in the art and who wishes to learn how to practice the invention, it will be recognized that the foregoing recital is not intended to list all of the features and advantages, Moreover, it may be noted that various embodiments of the invention may provide various combinations of the hereinbefore recited features and advantages of the invention, and that less than all of the recited features and advantages may be provided by some embodiments.